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Damnation Campaign
Damnation Campaign The small wooden door shook inside the small makeshift bunker from shells exploding in the distance. Dirt from the ceiling escaped only to make it’s way to the freedom of the ground, forming small hills on the floor. It was never the same when Sharpe arrived on a planet, but he could always count on living in the dirt. He didn’t mind it so much as long as it wasn’t too wet and the subsurface creatures didn’t bite. A month before he had the unfortunate pleasure of being bit by a tiny worm that worked it’s way through his left leg, nearly driving him and many of his men mad with pain. Since then he hadn’t taken his boots off unless he had to. A short rap at the door brought him from his daze. “Enter” he said plainly. A small chubby man in his forties squeezed through the tiny doorway and moved in. He made himself comfortable in the little room at makeshift table and wiped the sweat from his brow. “Lord Commissar, pardon my intrusion” “It’s fine Harris, how are the lines tonight?” “Well, Sir, our recon flyers have returned with their intelligence only a few minutes ago. It seems the Orks have dug into the northern side of the Vogen. Lord General Praetus has asked that we begin an assault on the city walls by tomorrow night.” Sharpe erupted from his seat “What?! For Fuck's sake! How exactly are we supposed to do that?” Harris closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “We’ve tried to take the eastern roads and even with the help of the Ultramarines, we couldn’t take those bridges! Doesn’t he know that!” Harris stood and pulled a photo from his satchel. “Our pilot Hagman from “The Daring” took these shots from the east, and he thinks there might be a way in through either the spaceport to the north, or a direct approach at the southern gates.” Sharpe moved towards the pictures and nodded his head. Harris was a sly soldier where it counted indeed, even though he got a lot of mocking from the men, Sharpe knew that his brains were the strongest muscle he had. “Okay Harris,” Sharpe smiled, “Let’s move through the spaceport at the north, we’ll call our friends the Ultramarines to try and take the southern entrance and hit them from both sides.” Harris moved to the door to exit, “Oh, and Jinx, remind me to make sure that pilot Hagman gets a bottle of Sacra on me the next time we see him. Unless of course we all die horrible deaths, then let him know he’ll be getting demoted”. Harris opened the door and looked back at the Commissar, he couldn’t quite figure him out. He left the room quietly and recited a quick prayer. Emporer help us in the days to come. Vogen will need to be retaken! Why Vogen? “We thought it was over. We couldn’t have been more wrong. Turns out the Black Legion left us a little present during the first war. The presence of so much death, confusion and panic lit up like a firecracker in the warp. Chaos was irresistibly drawn back to Vogen, hoping to feast on our pain. As it turns out, so was everybody else; right now just about every other heretic, alien and scumbag in the sector is fighting for a piece, either for or against Chaos. They want our city bad. But they ain’t getting it.” Veteran Sergeant Harper, 95th Cadian Regiment What Veteran Sergeant Harper could not possibly know was that Abaddon had been far from idle. Unbeknownst to any of the Imperial citizens on the planet, Vogen was built atop a hellish gateway known as the Damnation Cache. This gateway was a small but terrifyingly stable portal into the Warp, through which daemonic legions could travel into the material realm. Once captured, Abaddon would be able to summon forth a tide of wrathful Daemons to overwhelm the remaining defenders of Vogen and threaten the hundreds of Imperial planets nearby. In the dark days of the Horus Heresy, vast numbers of Daemons had emerged from the Damnation Cache to fight against those who had remained loyal to the Emperor. Following Horus’ defeat, the Damnation Cache was sealed, and in the centuries that followed, it disappeared from history. Only the Daemon-hunting Grey Knights retained any knowledge of the portal.